Agent: La’El Collins won’t play this year if not drafted tonight

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 1, 2015, 5:40 PM EDT

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LSU offensive tackle La’El Collins, a first-round talent whose draft stock plummeted when police said they wanted to question him in a murder case, plans to sit out the 2015 season if he is not drafted tonight.

Collins’s representatives are saying that if he’s not selected in Rounds 2 or 3, he won’t play. If a team drafts him in Round 4 or later, he’ll decline to sign with that team, and he also wouldn’t sign as an undrafted free agent. Instead, Collins would re-enter the 2016 draft.

Although the police are not saying Collins is a suspect in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, it’s extremely unlikely that Collins will be drafted tonight because police haven’t publicly exonerated him. So if Collins is serious about this, he’s probably not going to play this year.

But it remains to be seen whether Collins is serious about this. If he goes undrafted and is exonerated, he’ll have many teams offering to sign him as an undrafted free agent. He might then decide that he’d rather make the hundreds of thousands of dollars he can make this season as an undrafted rookie than make zero this year and roll the dice on some team drafting him in the first round and paying him millions next year.

What?!? What possible advantage is it to sit out a year and delay a) being paid your first contract and b) reaching free agency. Not to mention no one will spend a first rounder on fat dude who’s rusty who again (see Mike Williams….)

Unless you are guilty of something and are pressing the issue so that you can get paid right now….

Yeah, I don’t see him pulling an Elway by threatening or actually sitting out. Roll the dice and you may end up with craps. A lot can happen between this year and next. Take the money now. There’s not that much of a difference from being a 3rd to a 4th. Besides, if your agent is as smart as he thinks he is, he’ll be creative with some obtainable incentives given the circumstances. Besides, he’ll hit FA faster if he falls later.

Terrible idea. It’s better be playing for minimum rookie wage with the potential of earning much more than stacking shelves and chancing being drafted highly next year after playing no football for 12 months.

If he really thought there was a risk he’d be charged with this, he would not be bothering with statements like this. He’d be 100% focused on not going to jail. This feels like a kid who has had his name dragged in the dirt for something he didn’t do. He’s more focused on his draft stock than spending a life behind bars. Sounds like he’ll be cleared when the dust settles.

Long answer: Yes. Bo Jackson was drafted first overall in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He opted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals, who had drafted him in the fourth round in the 1986 amateur draft. Jackson held true to his threat not to sign with the Bucs. Bucs lost rights to him. Raiders drafted him in 1987 and obtained his rights. He then joined the team after the baseball season ended with the Royals.

He certainly can. Any player may decline to sign if drafted and the team that drafted him retains his right only until the draft the following year. If they can’t work out a deal in that time he has every right to refuse to sign and re-enter the draft in 2016.

This seems to be a ploy by the agent to not lose out on his payday. First rounder to undrafted. The agent is going to “lose” a ton. Taking this kind of stance will probably result in this kid not being drafted. I doubt he ever plays a down in the NFL with that attitude

if my name were mentioned in a murder investigation and I had nothing to do with it I would be on the first plane back to where I needed to be and answer all the questions they wanted as soon as I could, but first he can’t be found and then must wait until after the draft before he talks with the cops? I hop goodell lowers the boom on any team that drafts him.hit them as hard as he possibly can to send a message the league will not deal with people with questions like this about them. if he is found not to have had anything to do with it then he is a free agent and can sign with anyone but it is his fault not the leagues. the cops even said he is not a suspect they just want to question him so why the delay?

If he isn’t drafted, can he sign a one-year contract as a rookie free agent, then become a restricted or unrestricted free agent after one year? I think rookies are owned by their team for three or four years, but if he could play this year and then have a chance at a payday next year, that would be the better option.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume he’s totally innocent and his name gets cleared in a month. If he goes undrafted, couldn’t he just sign with any team? And couldn’t that team agree that he was a first or second roundish talent and sign him to a contract in that ballpark? I know there’s a rookie cap, but it would seem that a team without a first round pick or a team with less than normal picks could make it work. Would that work?

This isn’t a terrible plan… IF he knows he’ll be exonerated and IF he thinks he can get a second-round or higher selection next season. The difference between getting taken in the top 50 and being taken with one of the last few picks is a couple million dollars over four years. While it pushes him later to reach free agency, it also doesn’t lock him in for peanuts for his first four years.

Problem is, he may well not be able to get a decent pick next year after taking a year off.

The only possible reason I can think of that he would be doing this is to try to “scare” a team into drafting him tonight rather than waiting until later to draft. For example, say teams are planning to draft him but think they can get him in a later round. He’s now saying “You can’t get me in a later round because I won’t play for you”

It may work, it may not. Regardless, it’s a pretty stupid strategy and I think has a better chance of backfiring on him.

This is a horrible idea, and all about the agent trying to protect his big fat commission.

He has no prayer of staying in condition for a year without having a team to work out with, practice with, and play games with. Lifting and running is only half the battle. So he will be way behind the curve in next year’s draft. But the bigger factor will be money.

In the meantime, if/when he is completely cleared, which could take a while, he will get multiple UDFA offers. Those offers will be enough to let him know that sitting out is a dumb move. Minimum wage on the street is nowhere near 400k/year like it is in the NFL. All he needs to do is do a one-year deal, and he can work his way in, and sign a better contract after he gets a little leverage back.

This is completely ridiculous. If he is truly innocent isn’t it kind of best not to get drafted at this point. He has a first round grade and talent so if he goes undrafted then gets cleared teams will be lining up to sign him as an undrafted FA and I don’t believe there is a cap on those contracts. So he can get teams of his choice to bid for his srervices til he finds the best contract and system for him. Dude needs to find a new agent.

This agent and Adrian Peterson’s agent should be in a contest to see who is the dumbest agent. I give a slight edge to Peterson’s agent, but the Collins saga is only beginning so his agent has plenty of room and time to catch up.

Now you’ve put off talking to the cops until MONDAY ??? You REALLY think some team will draft you tonight with this hanging over you ?? And if they don’t , you’ll take your ball and go home ??? You and your agent couldn’t blow your noses if your brains were DYNAMITE !!!

Really messed up on the police’s end to let this get out to the media and possibly destroy this guy’s career, reputation. We, as the audience, shouldn’t know who cops want to talk to because that creates a false impression from the start.

If he is going to jail they want their cut of this year’s contract. 3% of nothing next season is nothing. Last season 2nd-3rd rookies got approximately $3mil so that could be $100K in that agents pocket if he ends up being guilty and not signing at all. I’m not saying he is guilty. But if he is and these agents know he is. Well.

Hope his agent isn’t giving him that advice. If he doesn’t play this year, then teams will not seriously consider him for the 1st round next year, which means he will lose more money. Not playing for a full year and then trying to prove he can just go out and play, that’s not smart.

One thing NFL teams like, to be threatened. I feel sorry for this guy because he probably didn’t do anything, and on top of it all, he’s going through a personal tragedy, but threatening anybody because they won’t give you a job at the pay grade you wanted isn’t going to fix that.

I think the point of his agent saying he wouldn’t play at all if not drafted tonight is b/c teams WOULD take a flyer on him in later rounds meaning much less money for the player & agent so OFC the agent would say he won’t play this year so they have room to negotiate a deal later (and not be stuck with a 6th round salary for example) if he’s exonerated.

Why is this announcement getting so much vitriol. Am I taking crazy pills or is this not the sanest, most reasonable way to handle a horrible situation?

Let’s assume that he didn’t murder his pregnant girlfriend (because if he did, then obviously any word that has anything to do with football is a wasted one, and it doesn’t matter what his agent says):

Why should a consensus Top 10 pick feel obligated to sign for 4 years to whatever rink-a-dink deal he’s going to be slotted for as a 4th round pick? When he entered the draft, he didn’t write his name to a blank contract to let any team fill in whatever terms they want.

He had horrrrrrrible luck on the timing to go in for questioning, so he’s gonna go ahead and see if he’ll have better luck next year.

As for those who say this will only add to his list of character issues: again, assuming he didn’t murder anyone, what’s the list of character issues? Once he’s cleared of that, how bad are teams really gonna hold against him making a sound business decision?

As for him “not being able to stay in shape,” even if that’s true (I’m not certain it is), how long is it going to take him to get back in shape. Cedric Obowuefiouwef is a comparable talent who is going to be out most of the year, and he just got picked in the first round.

As for those who say it’s dumb for him to pass up on UDFA, this press release isn’t a binding agreement. He still can. If a team wows him with a deal once he’s cleared of charges, maybe he just might sign it. This sets the tone at the negotiating table though: I’d sooner try my luck in next year’s draft than sign to a long-term commitment for pennies.

Of course, maybe he did murder his pregnant girlfriend, and that’s why we’re all ready to throw him and his agent under the bus, but if that’s the case, then this report has nothing at all to do with why their party deserves criticism. In that scenario, the whole murdering their pregnant girlfriend thing is the real issue, and no matter what any representative says, he shouldn’t be playing in the NFL ever.

he WILL get drafted tonight. It’s just a really unfortunate situation. His old girlfriend was murdered. That’s something hard to take for anyone, much less a young man. Feel sorry for the guy, rather than ridicule him.

But if he is not drafted because it takes a few more days for police to announce he will never be suspect, then he could sit out the year and get much bigger pay day next year.

There is literally NO chance the police would not be talking to every known recent boyfriend of this poor girl and they also would want to find out who is the father of the child, simply because murders are sometimes committed by significant others or former flames and former significant others do have a lot of info on the person they used to be in relationship with and that info can help police.

I think for him (if he had nothing to do with the girl’s death) to sit out a year is the best thing to do. He is a beast on the OL. He can get his name cleared and still be eligible for next year’s draft. That way there is no baggage surrounding him. His agent is actually looking out for him. 1st round talent so it makes perfect sense.

I’m glad to hear so many people would be cool, calm and collective after losing out on millions of dollars. Especially from a situation like this if you were in fact innocent. You’d make all the right decisions, I know. Pffff

Dear dumb agent,
If Collins is found completely innocent and had nothing to do with the murder, he can still sign a BIG free agent contract with 1st round type money. If he is completely exonerated, the money could even be bigger since multiple teams could bid on him.

If he has any involvement with the murder, drafted or undrafted he is screwed.

He should say that and scare teams away from using a low pick on him. Then, if this legal stuff clears, he can go sign a free agent deal with the Pats, Seahawks, or whomever. This guy is a beast in the run game and probably my favorite lineman in the draft.

Still can’t understand why the Baton Rouge police simply couldn’t send a couple of guys to speak with Collins – or with today’s technology – why he couldn’t have gone into a Chicago police department and speak with their Baton Rouge colleagues via a video conference call.

If this guy is innocent, then I wonder what kind of backlash this may have on the police for making it seem that Collins isn’t simply someone they would like to speak with, but more a ‘person of interest’.

Doing this could possibly be smart business financially, but talking about it is certainly counterproductive. Such claimed willingness to sit out a year will hurt his stock more, making it more likely he falls out of the third.

If he’s drafted in the fourth, he should probably suck it up, he’ll be lucky to go in the second if he sits out a year.

He definitely won’t be undrafted. I’m hoping he gets drafted in the sixth or seventh, just to see what will happen.

“Still can’t understand why the Baton Rouge police simply couldn’t send a couple of guys to speak with Collins – or with today’s technology – why he couldn’t have gone into a Chicago police department and speak with their Baton Rouge colleagues via a video conference call.”

The investigation isn’t affected by a short delay in his interview, so the police don’t care. The one who should care is La’El. He should’ve jumped on a plane the minute he became a person of interest to give him a clearer shot at the draft. His fault, not the police’s fault.

If he goes undrafted, but is so talented that multiple teams would be interested if/when he is cleared, couldn’t he just go to the highest bidder? Is there a rule that says undrafted rookies can only be paid a certain amount?

You guys need to settle down and stop passing all this judgement. The kid has had no chance to clear his name in this short time.. It has nothing to do with flying back to Baton Rouge quickly. The police are going to take their time. He has no control over that part.

Unless he proven guilty his future earnings are being unfairly discounted through no fault of his own. And we are talking about $4 or $5 million over the next four years.

He deserves every chance to protect that income stream. The Commish is a jerk for not pulling him out of the draft and moving him over to the supplemental.

The idea of the NFL using this as and excuse to pay the kid 15% of what he is worth sickens me.

The difference between end of 3rd round last year and end of 7th round was $116k/year on the 4 year rookie contract.

If he is drafted in the 7th this year, and doesn’t sign he’ll skip receiving around $600,000 and be one more year away from getting to a bigger 2nd contract.

There is no guarantee that after sitting out next year, he would still be drafted in the 1st or 2nd round, so the amount he’d lose by skipping a year would be greater than the difference if he is drafted today versus tomorrow.

Bottom line is that when he and his accountant sit down and do the math, they’d sign a 7th round contract this year so this is a completely empty meaningless threat by his agent.

“if my name were mentioned in a murder investigation and I had nothing to do with it I would be on the first plane back to where I needed to be and answer all the questions they wanted as soon as I could”

Metalhead, never talk to the police. Ever. Any cop will tell you that. Don’t talk. You have the remain silent, use it. Let your lawyer do all the talking.